


The Rise

by IzzytheInsomniac (Avid_Aviator)



Series: Mixed Metaphors [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, Actual Model Adrien Agreste, F/M, Future Fic, Gabriel Agreste's A+ Parenting, Gen, Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste, I Tried, I have no idea what I'm doing, Identity Reveal, fashion industry, send help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 10:42:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11872659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avid_Aviator/pseuds/IzzytheInsomniac
Summary: In darkness we fall,From ashes we rise.





	The Rise

**Author's Note:**

> ya'll this is all conjecture, headcanons, and weird dreams. Idk. Enjoy I guess.

 

If Adrien fell like an angel then he rose like a phoenix. All fire and flight and new life. It wasn't as sudden as it seemed but the final burst surprised everyone. How could the quiet, polite young boy become such a self-confident man? Just like every other Phoenix, there had to be death before life, but you've heard that story.

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This story starts four days after Adrien locked himself away when the world discovered Hawkmoth's identity. It starts with a broken door and a lot of yelling. His friends assured him it wasn't his fault and that he was nothing like his father and that they were talking to the school board. Adrien listened and smiled and didn't believe them.

They didn't know everything. They didn't know that Chat had been suspicious of Mr Agreste for a long time but Adrien had brushed it off as his own resentment towards a distant father. They didn't know he hadn't said anything to Ladybug when he saw Hawkmoth transform the first time. They didn't know about the stitched gash on his chest.

They didn't know that he was as scared as the school board.

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Chat Noir stops patrolling.

Adrien stops running.

His father isn't around anymore to not care.

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Somehow Chloe was the first to see him. All of him at once. She barged into his room without knocking (and why wasn't the door locked?) she saw the bandages around his torso. She saw him. Saw the wounds. And knew. She wasn't as dense as she pretended to be. She yelled at him too. Asked why he would do something so dangerous, what if it had been worse. She stopped yelling when he explained that this was still one of the best possible outcomes _couldn't she see that_. She cried. He hadn't any tears left.

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Nino and Marinette and Alya show up at his mausol- mansion as often as they can. Nathalie lets them interrupt his lessons if that's when they happen to drop in. Even she is afraid of him. He's never been able to have what he wanted and now people won't dare to say no. (It never occurs to him that they are not scared of him. They are scared for him.) Beyond the way people either treat him as glass or a bomb, the police have questioned him multiple times. He's surprised that no one has realized he's not saying everything because honestly, he doesn't care enough anymore to act convincingly.

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Chat Noir finally _finally_ makes himself transform and go find Ladybug.  She, at least, deserves to know everything. If she can accept who he really is then maybe she can still be his saving grace, maybe he can be saved, maybe it won't all have been for nothing. Maybe his father and mother and brother didn't want him but if she does, if his friends do, then maybe he can haul himself out of the crater he made when he hit the ground. Whatever happens, even if she doesn't want him either after tonight, he will square his shoulders and flash a smile. This, at least, he has l training for.

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So Ladybug knows that Chat and Adrien are the same person and he knows that she and Marinette are the same person and even though Hawkmoth and his dad are the same person she still cares about him. Still loves him. And that is so much more than he could have ever hoped for.

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Marinette and Adrien decide to tell their best friends at the same time. Together. (That's another thing he hadn't dared to hope for) Their announcement is met with cheering from Alya, the Ladyblogger bouncing around the room and shouting in excitement. Her best friend was her hero and could she please get an exclusive interview. And Nino... Nino stares at the two unmasked heroes. He speaks and everyone goes silent.

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"Your own father stabbed you. Dude."

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Nathalie approaches him, once, after his friends have left the house. She tells him that his father's company is going to go under if something doesn't change. Technically, Adrien doesn't have a say in it until he's 21, but Nathalie is asking anyway. Does he want to try to keep their family company going or let it fade into history like his father soon will? Does he want to design for the company and be compared to his father or take the risk that no one else will hire him for that? Does he want to hire new designers and still model for Agreste Fashions, or does he want to model for some other company?

What does Adrien want?

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He doesn't know.

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Here's the thing. The thing very few will ever know in the fashion world. Hawkmoth was an Agreste(duh). But so was Chat Noir. So was Adrien's

mother, his brother, his grandparents. And if there is an Agreste legacy to be upheld, then the good far outweighs the bad. So Adrien will hang on to this

company with his teeth if it comes to that but he will not lose this too. These old fashion lines are some of the only memories he has of his mother. Of Felix. Of his father before everything went wrong. He wouldn't let one man ruin this legacy.

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Adrien and Nathalie spent a lot of time going over paperwork. They needed to make this work, _they would make this work_. They looked for loopholes, they searched every clause, and finally-finally- they had a plan. Nathalie had the authority to hire on new designers and interns. So she did. Soon, Adrien Agreste and Marinette Cheng were working with the only other designer who would stay after Hawkmoth went down. Soon, the designer realized they were interns in name only. Nathalie signed off on the two teens designs and then it was all logistics.

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There was a crowd of critics and reporters waiting for him. Agreste Fashions was releasing a new line. The first after Gabriel Agreste had been arrested for his crimes as Hawkmoth. It was the first fashion line that had nothing to do with Gabriel. He had not seen, touched, or approved of it. And Adrien was more than okay with that. Adrien had lived in his father's shadow long enough. It was his turn now. Adrien squared his shoulders, smoothed the front of the jacket Marinette had designed and borrowed his brother's confident smirk. He would walk out on that runway like his mother used to, and maybe, with these pieces of them that he carried with himself, they could save the Agreste name. Together.

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"We are here live during the Paris fashion week where many new lines will be introduced. We have many newcomers to the game and several old names in the business as well, though perhaps none so controversial as the presence of Agreste Fashions on the runway. The company almost went under following the arrest of owner and CEO, Gabriel Agreste, when it was discovered he was well-known supervillain Hawkmoth. It seems as if his son, Adrien Agreste, has decided to try and save his fathers fashion legacy at this year's Fashion Week; releasing a line of clothing designed by Adrien himself and a Marinette Cheng. This marks the youngest designers to ever make it to the runways of fashion week, both designers being a mere 16 years old. Whether or not the novelty can save Agreste Fashions remains to be seen."

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Chat Noir and Ladybug started patrolling. There was no Hawkmoth but there were other bad guys in a city this large. They stopped muggers and robbers and infiltrated places that the police couldn't get. It wasn't safe, wasn't entirely legal.... but what were they supposed to do? Plagg and Tikki said they wouldn't leave until their humans asked them to or died. And Marinette and Adrien weren't going to sit around when they had superpowers to make a difference.

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The clothing line is a success and Chat Noir is back and it's not perfect but it's better. Adrien still isn't sure what's going to happen but he's got plenty of people who love him and that is certainly enough.

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Adrien takes the tests Nathalie has arranged for him and passes all of them with flying colors. He now has the equivalent of a high school diploma and, thanks to his homeschooling, a few college credits. The school was hesitant to have him back and honestly, he didn't have time. So he graduated. No pomp and circumstance although Marinette made a cake and invited everyone over to eat it in celebration. It was enough. He had plenty of time to design and plan and patrol, and it was wonderful to be getting more than 5 hours of sleep every night. He was perhaps working a bit overtime trying to make up for the black mark Hawkmoth had left on the family, but it isn't like he hadn't been working overtime trying to please his father and himself and be a superhero before all of this happened.

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It's a big change. Marinette does most of the design work for a while. Adrien knew fashion, but he had never had a chance to design anything. Most of the things he tries to design just... don't work. He knows intimately the way fabrics and colors lay together but he can't visualise new things. When he looks at Marinette's designs, he knows immediately if it will look good in physical form. He knows what kind of fabrics are going to look and feel best together, but somehow he can't apply it as well to his own creativity. He just... Doesn't have ideas.

He hires new designers, now that people aren't so scared anymore. He locks himself in the study in the mansion and spends days looking through old family albums.

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Adrien doesn't stay on as a designer. He pops in every once and a while and makes suggestions or the odd tie but he doesn't do design work. For as far back as the Agreste company goes, the men of the company have been designers. Adrien is not.

Adrien is not good at designing. He doesn't have the creativity, the spontaneity for it. He has knowledge though. He grew up in front of cameras. He knows what catches the eye. Dramatics and masks have always been what he's good at, so he continues to hone them.

Adrien becomes the head of Media Relations.

Here, he _shines_.

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It wasn't the life he thought he'd have. Adrien expected to model for his father his whole life, or run away and become a hermit in Switzerland. (What? He was 13 when he made those plans, okay? ) Instead, he runs a company. Keeps them in the public eye. Models when he feels like it. He has a family. None of them carry the Agreste name (at least not yet) but that's okay.

It's okay.

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Adrien's okay too.

And you know what? That's enough.


End file.
